Chloe, My Love
by ProLiferChelle
Summary: This is an AU Bonanza story, and will not strictly follow canon. Characters may, for example, act in an uncharacteristic manner. "Bonanza" was created and produced by David Dortort. Note: The sentences at the end of Chapters 9 and 12 are deliberately left unfinished. If you review this story, please do not give away the ending. I've made some minor changes to the last chapter.
1. Chapter 1

Ben Cartwright tossed and turned with fever while his sons stood around his bed, anxiously watching.

"I can't stand seeing Pa like this," Hoss said in a low voice, not wanting to disturb him.

"Me neither," Little Joe agreed.

"You heard what Doc Martin told us," Adam reminded them. "He'll be as good as new once the fever breaks."

"But he couldn't tell us _when_ it will break," Little Joe pointed out.

"Well, I'm just thankful knowing Pa will be all right," said Hoss. "I don't think I could stand it if I thought he might..."

But before Hoss could finish his sentence, Ben began to mutter something. Adam, Hoss, and Little Joe grew very quiet, listening. Their father  
was incoherent at first,but then he spoke more and more clearly.

He said just one word... no, one _name_... over and over.

"Chloe. Chloe. Chloe."


	2. Chapter 2

"Chloe," Ben kept saying. "Chloe. Chloe."

Adam, Hoss, and Little Joe looked at each other, puzzled.

"Who," asked Little Joe, voicing the question in each of their minds, "is Chloe?"

"Or who _was_ she?" Hoss added.

"Let's just wait until after Pa recovers," Adam said, "and then we can ask him."

#####

Ben's fever broke three days later. A week afterward he recovered, he was, as Doc Martin had predicted, as  
good as new, but his sons still hadn't asked him about Chloe.

"Isn't it about time we talked to Pa?" Little Joe demanded, walking into the house with Adam and Hoss.

"We _have_ been putting it off," Adam admitted. "Suppose we ask him after supper."

"That," Hoss agreed, "sounds like a good idea."

"I'm the eldest," Adam pointed out, "so I think it is my place to bring it up."

Hoss nodded and said, "It might as well be you."

####

The Cartwrights were at supper... baked ham with gravy, corn on the cob, and fried potatoes... when Little Joe suddenly  
spoke up.

"Pa?"

"Yes?"

"Pa, we think you've been keeping something from us," Little Joe said

Hoss and Adam shook their heads at their impetuous, impatient little brother. This was not the way they had agreed to approach their father.

Little Joe ignored his brothers and went on, "Whatever it is, we're not little boys anymore, and we demand to know..."

"Joseph," Ben Cartwright spoke warningly, "you may not be a little boy, but I'm still your father, and you do not _demand_ anything."

"Sorry, Pa. I guess that wasn't very respectful," Little Joe apologized, feeling embarrassed

"It's not the way we meant to bring it up," Hoss put in.

"Bring what up?"

"Well, Pa," Adam explained, "about a week and a half ago, when you had that fever, we heard you say something."

"What did I say?" Ben asked. "People say all sorts of things when they're feverish."

"You said a name, just that name, over and over," said Hoss.

"What name was that?"

"Chloe," Adam said.

Ben was startled.

"Chloe?" he repeated.

"Yes, Pa," said Little Joe, who had recovered from his embarrassment, "and we've been wondering who Chloe is... or was."

"I guess it is time, and past time, for you to know," Ben acknowledged, "and I never really meant to keep it from you."  
He looked at his sons and said softly, "Chloe was my wife."


	3. Chapter 3

"Chloe was my wife," Ben said, "my first wife."

"We've always thought Adam's mother was your first wife, and now you're saying she wasn't?"

"Yes, Little Joe, that's what I'm saying."

"What can you tell us about Chloe, about your first marriage?" Hoss asked.

"It's a story I'm not very proud of, looking back," Ben began. "I was fifteen years old at the time, and I was  
visiting a friend at his family's summer home. It was a large house, and my friend's sister also had a guest."

"Chloe," Little Joe put in.

"That's right. Chloe had dark brown hair that she kept tied with a red ribbon."

"And you fell in love then and there?"

"No, Joseph, I didn't," Ben said. "For one thing, I hardly got to see her before she was whisked away by my friend's sister.  
Remember, Chloe was _her_ guest. Besides," he added, "I was spending most of my time with my friend."

"Then how did you fall in love?" Little Joe asked.

Adam spoke up. "Joe, will you stop interrupting Pa?

"That's right. Please let him finish," said Hoss.

"Sorry," Little Joe apologized. "I'll try not to interrupt again."

"Thank you," Ben said. "It wasn't until that Sunday, in church, that I began to fall in love, when I heard her voice  
joining in the singing of the hymns. It was Chloe's voice, her singing voice, that I fell in love with first."

Little Joe opened his mouth, but then closed it without saying a word.

"After that, I managed to spend some time with her every day," Ben went on, "and before two weeks were up,  
we both knew that we wanted to be together for the rest of our lives. Well, one day we told everyone we were  
going for a walk, but we didn't go for a walk. We took a stagecoach to a town about twenty or thirty  
miles away."

Adam, Hoss, and Little Joe stared at their father.

"The first thing we did when we got off the stagecoach," Ben said, "was to find a Justice of the Peace. At first he didn't want to marry us,  
we were so young, but I managed to talk him into it. We were so happy," he continued, "and so thoughtless. We didn't consider anyone  
but ourselves."

Ben paused, knowing that his sons would have some questions.

"What did you do next?" Adam asked.

"We went to a hotel to have supper and spend the night. And since we were married... yes, we did what  
married couples do on their honeymoon. But the next morning, Chloe said that we should go back, because  
everyone must be worried about us."

Intense silence from his sons.

"But Chloe and I hadn't realized how fast our money was going. Between us, we didn't have enough  
for the stagecoach ride back," Ben said. "So there we were, the two of us, stranded."


	4. Chapter 4

"What did you do then, Pa?" Hoss asked.

"At first," Ben answered, "Chloe and I just stared at each other. We didn't know what to do. And then Chloe  
suggested that we go down to the lobby and see if we could talk to the manager, and ask if we could do some  
work to pay for a room, or at least be able to send a letter to our hosts."

"Did you get to see him?" Adam wanted to know.

"Yes, Adam, we did, but he wasn't very helpful," Ben replied. "He told us that he only hired adults at his  
hotel, and that we should have been more careful with our money. And," Ben admitted, "he was right,  
but it wasn't pleasant to hear."

"Didn't he do _anything_ to help you?"

"No, Hoss, but he _did_ suggest that we go looking for some work, and maybe we could earn enough  
for another night at the hotel. So that was what we did."

"Did anyone hire you?" asked Little Joe.

"Yes, fortunately for us, we found a shop owner who was willing to pay us to deliver packages, because his  
regular delivery boy was sick. So we made enough for another night at the hotel, and for the stagecoach  
back the next day."

"I'll bet you were tired," Hoss remarked.

"Yes, we were, tired and hungry, but we forget about that when we walked, or rather dragged ourselves, into the  
hotel. There, sitting in the lobby, and looking very angry, very impatient, were our friends' parents!"


	5. Chapter 5

Little Joe whistled.

Ben went on with his story.

"As soon as they spotted us, they stood up and walked towards us. Chloe and I stammered out  
a couple of _hellos._ Then Chloe asked how they knew where to find us."

"How did they know, anyway?" Hoss asked.

"Mr. Andrews... that was their name, Andrews... told us that they'd been frantic when they realized that  
we were gone. They asked everyone, but nobody had any idea where we were. And then they asked the  
stagecoach driver, and he told them where we'd been let off. "

"Mr. Andrews, Mrs. Andrews," I started to say, but I didn't get to finish. Mr. Andrews said, 'Not a word out of  
either one of you. Not one single word. We'll deal with this when we get back to the house.' "

"How did you get back?" Little Joe asked.

"In their buggy," Ben answered, "and we got lectured all the way about how thoughtless and inconsiderate  
and immature... that's the word that hurt the most, _immature_ ... we had been. It was a worse lecture than  
I'd ever gotten from my parents, and a worse one than I've ever given to any of you."

"What happened when you got back to the house?" Hoss wanted to know.

"Mr. Andrews reminded us... again... that he and his wife were responsible for us, that they were in the place of our  
parents while we were in their home."

"I think I know what's coming," Adam remarked.

Ben continued, "Mr. Andrews escorted me to one part of the house, and Mrs. Andrews escorted Chloe to another.  
And the same thing happened to both of us. I won't go into any details," he added, "but we ate our suppers off  
the mantelpiece that night."

"We had to do that a few times," Little Joe remembered.

"After supper," Ben went on, "Mr. Andrews said, 'We still don't know why you took off like that.' Chloe and I  
looked at each other. We could see Mr. and Mrs. Andrews, their son, and their daughter waiting for an answer.  
So after a minute or so, Chloe said, 'We got married yesterday.' "

"How did they react?" Hoss asked.

"You know the saying, _you could have heard a pin drop_?"

Adam, Hoss, and Little Joe nodded their heads.

"Well," Ben said, "at that moment, you could have heard a feather drop."

"I don't suppose anybody congratulated you," Adam said wryly.

"How did things end up?" Hoss asked.

Ben replied, "I'll put it briefly. Mr. Andrews wrote to Chloe's parents, and Chloe and I were kept apart  
until they arrived. Chloe's parents were furious, of course, and had the marriage annulled. And they  
took Chloe with them when they left." Ben sighed and concluded, "I never saw her or heard from her  
again."

"Have you ever wondered what became of her?" Little Joe asked.

"Sometimes," Ben admitted, "but it's too late to find out now."

"Maybe not," Little Joe thought to himself.


	6. Chapter 6

Little Joe lay awake that night, thinking. What if he could, somehow, reunite his father with his first love?

"Wait a minute," he argued inwardly with himself. "She probably met someone else and married him years  
ago."

But then he countered that with, "So what's wrong with two old friends getting back together?"

"What if they don't want to get back together?" Little Joe pointed out to Little Joe.

He finally agreed with himself that getting together just once wouldn't do either one of them  
any harm.

A voice inside of him warned Little Joe to at least consult his brothers first. He ignored that voice.

####

"Pa," Little Joe said the next morning at breakfast ... bacon, scrambled eggs, and biscuits ... "I'd like  
to go into town today, alone. I have a private errand to run."

"A private errand?" Adam teased. "What's her name?"

"Chloe," Little Joe thought to himself. What he said out loud was, "It's just an errand, and I really need  
to do it alone."

"I don't see any harm in it," Ben decided, "but don't forget, there's work to do around here."

"I won't take too long," Little Joe promised.

####

Two weeks later, Little Joe was reading a nationally published weekly newspaper, one that his father and  
brothers never read, and that published personal messages at no charge, when he came across the following:

 _Chloe:_

 _I've been thinking about you lately, and wondering how you are.  
Do you remember that time we stayed with the Andrews family?  
If you see this message, please reply to this column.  
_

 _Ben Cartwright_


	7. Chapter 7

Three days later, a woman wearing a dark blue dress and bonnet walked into her favorite store.

"Hi, Sam," she greeted the proprietor. "Do you have any new reading material for me?"

"Nothing you haven't already read, Chloe," Sam answered apologetically, "except for this paper, but I should have a better selection in a few days. Why don't  
you," he suggested, "wait until then?" _  
_

"No," Chloe said, "I need something new to read now."

Chloe paid for the paper.

"Thanks, Chloe. I hope you enjoy it."

"I'm sure I will. You know how I love to read," Chloe answered. "Tell Milly I'll see her at choir practice tomorrow."

#####

Fifteen minutes later, Chloe was sitting on the sofa in her living room, reading the paper she had bought in Sam's store, when her eyes fell on an item that  
made her blink several times.

 _Chloe:_

 _I've been thinking about you lately, and wondering how you are.  
Do you remember that time we stayed with the Andrews family?  
If you see this message, please reply to this column.  
_

 _Ben Cartwright_

Ben Cartwright! Why, Chloe wondered, was he trying to get in touch with her after so many years?

"And what," she asked herself, "should I do about it?"


	8. Chapter 8

"What was the matter with you tonight?" Milly whispered to Chloe when choir practice was over, and the two  
of them were drinking tea in Chloe's parlor. The newspaper... _the_ newspaper... lay on the table in front of them.

Chloe cringed. She knew all too well that she had let the other choir members down. She had been way off-key,  
and she had even forgotten the words to a hymn she knew by heart, a hymn she'd been singing since she was a  
little girl.

She saw herself now, opening her mouth and singing... nothing. She heard herself blurting out, "I've forgotten the words!"  
The other choir-members had turned to stare at her, and nothing increases embarrassment more than to be stared at during  
an awkward moment.

Chloe sighed and answered, "I had something on my mind."

"It must have been something very serious," Milly said, "because you are usually our best singer."

"It was," Chloe said. "Today I heard from someone... someone from my past."

"Who?" Milly asked.

Chloe picked up the paper and pointed.

Milly read:

 _Chloe:_

 _I've been thinking about you lately, and wondering how you are.  
_ _Do you remember that time we stayed with the Andrews family?  
_ _If you see this message, please reply to this column._

 _Ben Cartwright_

"Who," Milly asked, "is Ben Cartwright?"

Chloe took a sip of her tea before answering, "I'll tell you everything, but you must promise to keep it to yourself."

"Of course I will."

"Ben Cartwright was my husband."

"Your _husband_? But I thought you were a widow."

"I am. Ben Cartwright was my _first_ husband."

"Were you..." Milly paused, not sure how to ask the next question.

"Divorced? I promised to tell you everything, and I will."

"What are you going to do?" Milly asked when Chloe finished her story.

"I could pretend that I never saw this," Chloe answered. "After all, Ben would never know the difference. But then," she added,  
" _I_ would never know why he is trying to contact me."

"And so?"

"And so," Chloe said, "I'm going to send a reply."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chloe began her reply as soon as Milly left, but she soon found out that writing to the man who had been her husband for  
such a brief time, and from she hadn't heard for years, was not easy. It was far from easy.**

 _ **Ben,**_ **she wrote  
** ** _it was so strange to hear from you after all these years.  
_** ** _I thought_** **you** ** _had forgotten me. All that time, and you never, until now_**

 **Chloe crumpled up the paper and began again.  
** ** _Ben,  
I really don't know why you are_**

 **Chloe rejected that response as well, and began a third reply:  
** _ **Ben,  
**_ ** _I'm answering this mostly for the sake of politeness, but also  
because I'm curious as to why  
_  
But then Chloe stopped and asked herself whether she what she had just written was true. Was it  
merely politeness and curiosity which prompted her to correspond to a message she could so easily  
have ignored?**

 **She started over for the fourth time, read what she had written, and nodded. That fourth attempt  
was reply she would send to the newspaper.**

 **####**

 **"Pa," Little Joe said at breakfast on the day _that newspaper_ came out, "I need to go into town by myself today."**

 **"Another private errand?" teased Adam.**

 **Hoss took a bite of sausage, chewed, swallowed, and asked, "Are you sure you don't want to tell us what it's about**

 **Little Joe ignored his brothers.**

 **"Pa?"**

 **"Yes," Ben answered, "you may go into town by yourself. But don't forget," he added, "that there is  
work to do around here."**

 **"Thanks, Pa."**

 **####**

 **A few hours later, Little Joe was in a secluded spot on the Ponderosa with the newspaper in his hands, scanning  
the personal messages. Yes, Chloe _had_ replied.**

 _ **Ben**_

 _ **I really would rather not  
**_ _ **correspond through this column.  
**_ _ **Please write to the post office**_ **_at  
_** **(the address followed)** _ **  
and I will be sure to get your letter**_

 ** _Chloe_**

 **"Why," Little Joe thought, "that's only about forty or fifty miles from here. This is going  
to be easier than I thought."**

 **Meanwhile, several blocks away, Minerva Grayson, a notorious gossip and rumor-monger, was showing  
that same column to several other women.**

 **"And I still think," she insisted, "that the Ben Cartwright who wrote the first message..."**


	10. Chapter 10

**Several days later, Chloe was in her parlor, reading a letter from Ben Cartwright, or rather, a letter she  
** ** _thought_** **was from Ben Cartwright.**

 **"Dear Chloe,"**

 **Thank you for replying to my message. You're right... it's best that we not correspond through a  
newspaper column.  
You are probably wondering why I tried to get in touch with you after so many years. Well, lately  
I've been thinking about you a great deal, and wondering what you've been doing all these years.  
As for myself, I am now a widower with three fine sons, the youngest being the handsomest of all.  
I would like to get together with you, and see whether we could have a second chance, but maybe  
I'm being presumtious."**

 **"He misspelled** ** _presumptuous_** **," Chloe noticed. She went on reading.**

 **"If you** **are** **interested in meeting with me, please write to me at (there was a post office address given).**

 **Yours very truly,**

 **Ben Cartwright"**

 **#####**

 **Two days earlier, while the Cartwrights were at supper... roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy... Little Joe had said, "Pa, I'd like to  
be the one to get the mail for the next week or so."**

 **"Oh?" said Ben. "Any particular reason?"**

 **"I'm expecting something."**

 **"What?"**

 **"It's just something personal, Adam."**

 **"Are you in some kind of trouble? If you are, I need to know."**

 **"No, Pa. Like I said, it's just something personal."**

 **"Oh,** ** _personal_** **," chorused Adams and Hoss.**

 **"Yes, personal," Joe said.**

 **"You may get the mail," said Ben.**

 **"Thanks, Pa."**

 **####**

 **Six days after that conversation, and three days after Chloe received "Ben's" letter, the Cartwright  
brothers went into town together. Little Joe, of course, headed for the post office, after agreeing  
to meet Hoss and Adam at the saloon.**

 **But there was to be no meeting at the saloon that day.**

 **At the very moment that Little Joe was asking for the mail, his brothers met Minerva Grayson. She was  
carrying a red handbag.**

 **They greeted her politely.  
**

 **"How is your father?"**

 **"Just fine, thank you," Hoss answered.**

 **"Tell me something," Minerva went on, "is there a lady in his life?"**

 **"A lady?" Adam repeated.**

 **"An old friend, perhaps? Has your father been corresponding with someone named Chloe?"**

 **"Not that we know of," said Hoss.**

 **"We don't know any woman named Chloe," Adam added.  
**

 **It was the truth; they had never actually met Chloe.**

 **"Well," said Minerva, reaching into her handbag and taking out two newspaper clippings, "I saw  
** **these messages, and I thought," she concluded, "that the Ben Cartwright who wrote the first one  
 _must_ be your father.** **"**

 **"Why would you assume that?" Adam asked, forcing himself to speak patiently. "Our Pa isn't the  
only Ben Cartwright in the world."**

 **"Well, I think you should talk to your father," Minerva said, walking away.**

 **Hoss asked, when she was out of earshot, "Do you think we _should_ talk to Pa?"**

 **"No, Hoss," Adam said grimly. "I think we should talk to our little brother."**

 **Meanwhile, Little Joe was coming out of the post office with a letter from Chloe  
in his pocket.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Adam and Hoss began walking in the direction of the post office. They were stopped several times by people who had  
either read the messages in the paper, or spoken to others who had.  
**

 **"Our Pa isn't the only Ben Cartwright in the world," Hoss and Adam repeated each time.**

 **Little Joe came along, whistling. Adam noticed the letter in his pocket.  
**

 **"Might that letter," he asked, "be from _Chloe_?"**

 **"Chloe? Why would you think so?"**

 **"There was a message to Chloe published in (Adam spoke the name of the newspaper), and  
it was signed by Ben Cartwright."**

 **"Tell the truth, Joe," Hoss said. " _Did_ you write that message?"**

 **By the time the brothers returned to the Ponderosa, Adam and Hoss knew the whole story.**

 **"The question is, how do we tell Pa?"**

 **"No, Hoss," Adam said, "the question is, how does our little brother tell him?"**

 **####**

 **But it turned out that there was no need to tell their father. As soon as they walked into the house,  
Ben greeted them with, "Did one, two, or all three of you send a message in my name to..."**

 **"How...how did you find out, Pa?" Little Joe stammered, before Ben had finished his sentence.**

 **"Matthew Trent stopped by to see me, and he mentioned it," Ben answered. "Naturally, I told him that I didn't  
know anything about any such message."**

 **A few minutes later, Ben knew all about Little Joe's correspondence with Chloe.**

 **"We'll talk about this upstairs, in your bedroom," Ben said.**

 **Upstairs in his bedroom a few minutes later, Little Joe was saying,** **"But, Pa, wouldn't you like  
to see her again?"**

 **"I don't know. We barely knew each other."**

 **"But you were married to her. You were in** **love."**

 **"No," Ben said, "we _thought_ we were in love, ****but I know now that it was just infatuation  
** **and impulsiveness."**

 **"But wouldn't you, Pa, honestly?"**

 **"That's not the point, Joseph," Ben scolded.** **"The point is that you corresponded with her** **in my name,  
which you had no right, _no right_** **," he repeated emphatically, "to do. If** **you were a few years younger,  
I would turn ****you over my knee. As a matter of fact..."**

 **Adam and Hoss, downstairs, heard Little Joe** **protesting loudly, "Pa, wait! You can't! I'm** **too..."**

 **And then, yelling.**

 **"Pa! No! OUCH! Stop! OUCH! NO! OUCH!** **OUCH! OUCH! NO! OUCH!"**

 **Adam and Hoss exchanged looks, partly** **sympathetic, and partly amused.**

 **The sounds went on for a few minutes, and** **then there was silence from upstairs.**

 **Ben came down, alone, with Chloe's letter in** **his hand.**

 **"Your brother," he announced "will be staying** **in his room for the rest of the day."**

 **"Are you going to let him have any supper?"** **Hoss asked.**

 **"Hop Sing will take a tray up to him."**

 **Ben got his letter-opener, slit the envelope,** **extracted Chloe's letter, and read it.**

 **"Ben," Chloe had written, "after thinking it** **over, I've decided that I WOULD like to see  
** **you again, but only as I would be interested in** **seeing any one of my old friends. Please  
write ****and let me know how we can arrange it."**

 **" _Are_ you going to arrange to meet her?" Adam ****asked.**

 **"Under the circumstances, I don't really have** **any other choice. Besides," Ben admitted, "I  
** ** _would_ like to see Chloe again."**

 **"You would?" asked Hoss.**

 **"Yes," said Ben, "but let's not tell your** **brother."**


	12. Chapter 12

**Supper was over, and Hoss and Adam were playing a game of checkers.**

 **Ben was writing a letter to Chloe. It was a good thing, he reflected, that Little Joe's penmanship  
was so similar to his own. He doubted that Chloe would notice the minor differences; at least he  
** ** _hoped_** **she wouldn't notice them.**

 **"Dear Chloe," he began.**

 **He heard Adam say, "You could have jumped me there, Hoss. See? Now I get to take one of your men."**

 **"Dad burn it!" Hoss exclaimed, but he didn't really sound too upset.**

 **Ben paused. He had to be very careful not to write anything that might give Chloe even a _hint_ that he  
had _not_ been the one to initiate their correspondence. After all, discretion, as they said, was the better  
part of valor, and knowing the truth might cause Chloe undue embarrassment.**

 **Ben finished his letter just as Adam and Hoss finished their game of checkers, which Adam won.  
**

 **"It was very close," Adam acknowledged.**

 **####**

 **A few days later, Chloe received Ben's letter. She took it home, read it, and smiled.**

 **"Dear Chloe," Ben had written,**

 **"I think you are absolutely right; we should get together simply as any two  
old friends would. Shall I come to (he wrote the name of the town where Chloe lived)  
or would you rather meet me in Virginia City?  
Hoping to hear from you soon, I remain,**

 **Ben"**

 **Chloe began her reply almost immediately.**

 **"Dear Ben,**

 **I think it would be best if..."**


	13. Chapter 13

**On the Sunday after he had received Chloe's latest letter, Ben sat in a church, listening intently to the voice he'd fallen in  
love with so many years ago.  
It was the same sweet voice, and yet not the same voice. The sweetness was still there, but Chloe's voice had blossomed, ****had ripened,** **  
into that of a woman.**

 **He went to speak to her when the service was over. Chloe simply introduced Ben as an old friend whom she hadn't seen  
for years. Milly, who was standing next to Chloe, gave no indication that she knew otherwise.**

 **"Is there any place we can go and talk?" Ben asked.**

 **"Yes," Chloe answered. "There is a lovely park with a duck pond. We could go there."**

 **#####**

 **A little later, Ben and Chloe sat silently on a bench in the park, watching a mother duck and her six ducklings  
swimming around and around in the pond. They felt suddenly, unexpectedly shy and awkward.  
**

 **Each waited for the other to speak. Each waited for the other to break the silence. But neither of them  
did. And then, the mother duck gave a loud, funny-sounding "QUACK!" **

**"Quack quack quack!" answered the ducklings in an almost perfect chorus. "Quack quack quack!"**

 **Ben and Chloe laughed, and that put both of them more at ease.  
**

 **"We have a great deal of catching up to do," Ben remarked.**

 **"I was very surprised to see that message from you after so many years."**

 **"I'm glad you saw it."**

 **"It was a lucky coincidence that I did," Chloe replied. "I'd never read (she said the name of the paper)  
before, but there was no other new reading material available."  
**

 **There was another unexpected pause as Ben and Chloe groped for their next words.**

 **Finally Chloe said, "I wonder what became of the Andrews family. I lost touch with them after..."  
she hesitated... "after we..." **

**Ben realized that Chloe was feeling a bit embarrassed about the past. So was he.**

 **"I also lost touch with them. And you and I lost touch with each other after," Ben paused and then  
said, "after your parents had our marriage annulled."**

 **"No, Ben," Chloe said softly, "my parents did not have our marriage annulled."**


	14. Chapter 14

**For once, Ben forgot to be a gentleman as he stared open-mouthed at Chloe.**

 **"What do you mean, they didn't have the marriage annulled? Are you telling me that... that my  
subsequent marriages... that my sons..."**

 **"No, Ben. Don't worry about that," Chloe reassured him. "My uncle, who was an attorney, advised them that it would be  
** **better, and safer, for us to be divorced. He drew up the papers himself," she went on, "and it was all perfectly legal."**

 **"That's a relief. For a minute, I thought..."**

 **"Yes," Chloe laughed. "It was obvious what you thought."**

 **Ben and Chloe watched the mother duck and her ducklings swimming around. The ducks, for their part, had lost  
interest in the man and woman on the bench.**

 **"Did you ever wonder" Ben stopped.**

 **"Yes. For a long time I wondered" Chloe, too, stopped, then asked, "what did you wonder, Ben?"**

 **"What had become of you, for one thing."**

 **"For one thing, I, too, remarried. Arthur and I were very happy, except for the fact that we were never blessed  
with children."**

 **"I can't imagine my life without my sons," Ben said quietly, "although there have been times when I've thought about  
what might have happened if you and I had met ****when we were older."**

 **"So have I," said Chloe.**

 **"I realize now that we were just a couple of impulsive, impetuous kids," Ben admitted. "Hardly more than children."**

 **"We're older now," Chloe said, "and, I hope, more mature."**

 **"Mature enough to take time to get to know each other, _really_ know each other, if you'd like to. Would you?" Ben asked.**

 **"Yes, Ben," Chloe answered softly, "I _would_ like that... very much."**


	15. Chapter 15

**And so, Ben and Chloe renewed their acquaintance, getting to know each other all over again, getting to know each other  
much better than they had so many years ago.**

 **They went to the theater, to concerts, to the opera. They went dancing; Ben discovered that Chloe could dance almost as well  
as she could sing. But best of all were their long walks, and long talks. And during those walks and talks, ****Ben and Chloe began  
** **to wonder whether what they had thought of as youthful impulsiveness, impetuousness, had actually been** ** _instinct._ Could it be  
that ****they had sensed, even then, that they belonged together?**

 **And yet, underneath it all, Ben felt just a bit guilty about keeping the truth about how their correspondence had started from  
Chloe.**

 **"I'll tell her someday," he promised himself, "someday when I'm sure it won't hurt her."**

 **####**

 **And, quite some time later, Ben did tell Chloe the truth as they lay in bed together.**

 **"Well," Chloe said, "it may have been wrong of him to meddle in our lives like that, but," she finished with a smile, "I'm very  
glad he did."**

 **"So am I. Happy anniversary, Chloe, my love."**


End file.
